Each enterprise wants to get maximum ROI by launching the perfect software application. But each enterprise has to consider several factors to launch a popular software application. Most companies, nowadays, deploy a team of seasoned software testers to ensure that the software is error free. Likewise, many companies even invest in various test automation tools to identify and fix all bugs or flaws in the application before its release. However, to effectuate software testing efforts, a business must be armed with the right people, tools and processes. At the same time, it is also important for the organization to identifying the factors that affects test efforts in software testing. Factors Affecting the Software Testing Efforts of a Business Project Documentation: Good and detailed documentation adds value to the software development project. But both time and efforts are required to create detailed documentation. Sometimes the meticulous documentation of specific test cases can delay the testing process. When the testing professionals are required to maintain detailed documentation during test execution, they have to invest additional time and effort. So they test data that are fragile or need to be maintained frequently will have an impact on the testing efforts. Increase in Software Application Size: To beat competition, enterprises keep adding new features and functionality to the software during different stages of development. These new features often increase the overall size of the project. Sometimes the increase in the project size also makes the business in increasing the size of the project team. The frequent increase in the size of the project and project team can affect the testing of large and complex software applications. Software Life Cycle: The development life cycles of the software can also have a direct impact on the testing efforts. Each time any new features or functionality is added to the product, the testers are required to conduct rigorous regression testing. Sometimes changes in the late stages of development require the business to incur additional regression testing cost. Maturity of Process: Like new processes, mature processes can also affect the overall software testing efforts. The testers have to manage changes in mature processes with additional care. Any changes in the mature process during the middle or end of the project also require the testers to repeat all tests, while keeping the test execution cost under control. Time Constraints: Each company to wants to beat competition by reducing the time to market. The shortening of time to market often affects the organization’s overall software testing strategies and test efforts. The time pressure also makes some testing professionals to take unwarranted risks. To eliminate the unwarranted risk factors, the test efforts need to be planned and organized at regular intervals. Availability of Skilled Testers: Along with tools and methods, people are also in integral part of the software testing process. Along with writing test cases, the testers will further execute the processes. So the testing efforts are impacted by the skills of individual testing professionals and the team. It is always important for the business to pick seasoned software testers, and align their skills according to the specific needs of the project. Test Results: The test results help managers in taking some key decisions about the software release. Sometimes the test results are also evaluated by various stakeholders to take the right decisions. So the testing strategy of an organization must aim to deliver relevant and accurate test results. However, the quality of the software will be affected if the bugs or flaws highlighted in the test results are not fixed at the earliest. Any defect in the software identified during the testing must be fixed in the same cycle. Otherwise, the defect will have a huge impact on the overall test efforts. On the whole, a business must focus on several factors to effectuate the creation of test plans, and estimation of test schedules and efforts. The test efforts will also be impacted by the software testing approach or strategies of the business. But the software testing strategy of the organization must focus on the factors affecting the test efforts in software testing. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of a independent software Testing company. We provide IT software Testing services. If you would like to hire software Test engineer from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.
An internet application should be accessible on various web browsers in order to become popular. This is important because users choice for the web browser is different from one another. Programmers need to make sure the app which they build should work perfectly over a wide range of internet browsers. The cross browser compatibility of an web application could be checked with extensive regression testing. However regression testing needs more time as well as resources. Because of this, organizations choose for reliable test automation tools such as Selenium & Cucumber in order to avoid cost & time consuming regression tests. These tools allow developers to develop many automated test suites which will run against various internet browsers. Additionally, they also have way to run automated test suits within the build pipeline or even schedules build process. No matter what the approach is, the tools work well on finding bugs quickly and also gives quick feedback.Developers are offered with various tools by Selenium, that are needed for testing different factors of a web application. The tool is additionally used commonly by developers in browser test automation. Therefore Selenium works well for checking the performance and the behavior of any application around various supported internet browsers. Selenium in addition includes a collection of tools which run flawlessly on popularly used operating systems and also on across web browsers. The testers could even manage those tools with a variety of frameworks and also with programming languages. In addition to web browser automation, Selenium could also be used in web based administration tasks. Since the tool supports many web browsers, it is more comfortable for developers to add the tool in the browser's native components. A company in addition has choice to select Selenium IDE, Selenium Remote Control or even Selenium WebDriver based on the type and needs of every web application development project. The IDE may be used like a simple Firefox add-on to do simple record & playback in the web browser. Besides making bug reproduction scripts quickly, the IDE even creates script for the automation aided exploratory testing. Additionally, the Selenium WebDriver and also Selenium Remote Control are utilized for browser-based regression automation to optimize. These suites moreover help the developers for distributing and even scaling test scripts over different conditions. Apart from Selenium, Cucumber is another popular test automation tool which provides behavior driven development. Developers may use Cucumber to explain the expected behavior in the internet application in a plain text. Even Though it is written in Ruby, Cucumber works with various programming languages like Java, C#, Ruby, .NET, FLEX & Python. Therefore it becomes simpler for the developers in order to test applications that are written with any of the above mentioned supported programming languages. Entire Cucumber testing process is often split into 6 wide steps. However the programmers aren't needed to write any kind of code when solving a bug. Each of these Cucumber & Selenium needs to be utilized together in order to efficiently check out the application's cross-browser compatibility. These popular tools should be utilized together for the automated behavior-driven development testing in order to reduce the entire development expense & time period. A steady rise is observed into the amount of companies switching to behavior based development approach. The agile methods additionally facilitates developers on quickly test the way an internet application functions over various browsers. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of a selenium web testing company. We provide selenium website testing services. If you would like to discuss with an expert selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.
Software testing is a method through which the functionality of a software program can be reviewed. Thus, this method allows an opportunity to the enterprises to comprehend the risks or the advantages related to software implementation. The test techniques are modeled to find out bugs in the application or program. However, the techniques are not limited only to this purpose. There are various kinds of testing but primarily two types are used – dynamic and static. Since the possibilities of software testing are vast, certain strategies are used to select the tests that will be feasible keeping in mind the resources and time frame.Understanding the product is important The software testers offer important insights and data about the present condition of the system. This information helps in minimizing any ambiguity associated with the program or app. In order to release a product in the market, it is essential to understand about the various aspects of the product, like, its usability and its compliance with other apps, etc. Thus, this process helps in making objective assessments regarding conformance of the product to the desired specifications or requirements. Validation is a necessity This method further verifies that the product meets the requirements that include reliability, performance, usability, security, functionality, etc. This is done to ensure that the building method is right. Moreover, it confirms that the system built is in accordance with what the users want. To put it briefly, validation is necessary to make sure that the software that is being developed is correct. Besides making the right decisions, the information from software testing is also helps in dealing with risk management. Testing helps in quality check It is vital as the process helps in improving the quality of the product. While tracing defects or bugs is one of the many aims of testing but it is not sole purpose. It is equally crucial that the product meets the requirements that were specified initially. It must be in sync with the purpose for which it is being developed. Quality enhancement enables the company to minimize reduce cost of service and support after the product is released. It also generates a good will amongst the customers when you deliver them a product that has minimal issues and reduces their costing as well. How to carry out testing? Whilst there are several benefits associated with this method, but the big question is how to carry it out successfully? A number of professionals are involved in this process – developers, managers, quality analysts, testers, tech leads, etc. The project is planned with the software requirement specifications (SRS). The main responsibility lies with the tester to develop the product from the specifications provided. The developers begin the coding once the design is complete. There are different modules in which the project is divided. The testers are also responsible for writing tests as per the assigned modules. How do the errors function? Committing errors are part and parcel of life. The process of testing is also not devoid of them as these are developed by human beings. However, simple errors can lead to a complete failure of the system. Thus, the cost involved with errors can be huge. Therefore, it is important to build products that are reliable. Mean Time between Failure (MTBF), Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) and service level agreements are some of the tools that are used to measure reliability. How much software testing can be done? This is also a crucial question. It has been proven that everything cannot be tested in software. There are exhaustive testers but exhaustive testing is a not a reality. The primary aim of testing is to justify the cost against the risks involved with the product. This method is dependent on how the project is planned and executed. It is also vital to assign the required tests first id there is time crunch. To conclude, testing is an indispensable part of software development. How it will be carried out and what extent depends on the completion of the project, resources and the available time. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of a offshore QA testing company. We provide software testing services. If you would like to hire software quality assurance tester from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.
The rapidly growing popularity of smartphones, tablets and phablets is encouraging enterprises to invest in mobile app development. But often enterprises find it a daunting challenge to make their mobile apps popular. To make a mobile app popular, an organization must optimize its look, feel, performance, and compatibility. At the same time, the enterprise also needs to ensure that the application is delivering flawless user experience.Before its release, the business must identify and fix all errors, flaws or bugs in the app. Many reports have highlighted that a business can increase the efficiency, effectiveness and coverage of testing by using a variety of test automation tools. Also, automated mobile testing helps QA engineers to increase the app’s performance and efficiency, by overcoming some of the common and significant challenges. How Mobile Application Test Automation Helps in Increasing the App’s Efficiency? Check the App’s Compatibility with Mobile Devices: To become popular, each mobile app needs to function flawlessly on a wide variety of mobile apps. The enterprise needs to ensure that the app is compatible with different versions of smartphones, tablets and phablets. With new handheld devices being launched at frequent intervals, it is not possible for testers to assess the compatibility of the app with different mobile devices and platforms manually. But they can use several mobile test automation tools to assess the look, feel and performance of the mobile app across a wide range of mobile devices. Assess All Aspects of the Mobile Apps: Normally, manual software testing methods avoid tests that are lengthy and through. But the test automation tools make it easier for QA engineers to improve the software quality in increasing the depth and scope of tests. The test case will run automatically, while having access to all aspects of the mobile app. So the test cases can check if the app is behaving expectedly by evaluating the data tables, memory contents, file contents and internal program states. The testing tools can also be used to carry out lengthy, detailed and complex tests without affecting the app release schedule. Evaluate New Features and Functionality: To beat competition, the business wants to add innovative and critical features to the app through different stages of promotion. So the performance of the app needs to be tested thoroughly each time any new feature in includes. The manual regression testing methods are slow and time-consuming. So the shortened time to market restricts the manual regression testing scope. But the QA engineers can use several tools to conduct regression testing repeatedly, and the functionality and performance of the app remain unaffected by the changes. Facilitate Testing Repetition: To identify all flaws, errors or bugs in the application, it must be tested thoroughly during all development cycles. The repetitive testing efforts will ensure that the application is performing flawlessly. The test automation tools allow QA engineers to conduct the tests repeatedly without putting any extra time and effort. They also have option to reuse and modify the test cases to assess the app’s performance through different development cycle. Also, test automation helps enterprises in saving both cost and time. Expand the Test Coverage: The manual testing efforts often restricts the test coverage due to availability of limited resources. But automation of mobile testing efforts delivers good test results on time. The use of automation tools further help the enterprises in expand the test coverage without deploying any additional testing professionals. The expanded testing makes it easier for developers to identify all flaws, errors and bugs in the app, and get these fixed as early as possible. An enterprise can further use cross-platform automated testing methods and tools to automate the testing of large and complex mobile applications. However, a business also needs to decide the right mobile test automation tools and methods. It also needs to implement a detailed mobile testing strategy by focusing on a number of best practices and challenges. The mobile testing efforts must the automated properly to make the mobile app popular within a short span of time. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of an Automation testing company. We provide test automation services. If you would like to hire automation testing experts from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.
One inevitable question that the client will ask is, “By when can you complete the project?” In such a situation it is important that a valid and realistic completion time is provided. There are several dynamic factors to be considered while working on a project which includes time, resources, funding, etc. Deciding upon an exact time of delivery and cost is always not possible. These factors often work as limitations for a project. Hence, there are certain estimation techniques that are required to plan, judge the scope and constrain the status of the project. These techniques can drastically improve the estimating practices; thus, reducing the risks. These ensure that the success rates for the projects are increased. Whether you are developing and launching a new website, developing a new product or updating an existing one, the involvement of skilled people, funds, testing, implementation, revision, etc are required. Thus, it is vital that you know the right ways to estimate the testing methods and cost before you begin working on the product.Estimation techniques prove helpful Estimating is an indispensable tool as far as managing and anticipating projects are concerned. You know this, right? This is the tool that will help to manage the uncertainties involved in developing products. These techniques aid in identifying the cost as well as time that are relatively accurate. This way the risk associated with the projects are reduced as there are lesser chances of going beyond the budget in a big way, running out of time and resources. Identify the factors that can challenge the estimation Before you set anything straight you need to point out the basic problems. The same rule applies while estimating the testing methods. Inspite of creating relatively correct effort and time predictions, it might seem difficult to turn them into reality. Thus, the need is to identify the factors that obstruct the progress. There are 3 basic problems including the presence of unknown variables that might make anticipating difficult or, even, impossible. Secondly, sometimes there are miscalculations that lead a company to believe it can manage a project within an available time. But in reality, it does not turn out to be that way as it is not possible to achieve more than is feasible within a stipulated duration. Thirdly, mostly, out of enthusiasm and a desire to please the client, a miscalculated estimation is projected. Once, these issues are taken into account, it becomes easy to provide a more believable and acceptable estimation for testing and cost. Bug cycle should be considered While estimating testing method, it should be kept in mind that the bug cycle is also a part of it. Therefore, a test cycle might take more days than what was estimated at the beginning of the project. In order to avoid such a situation, it is vital that the build is a stable one. In case the build has uncertainties, the developers will require more time to fix it. Hence, the test cycle gets extended. Revise the estimations Software development is an elaborate process. Once you reach the testing stage, several factors have arisen and more issues could arise during the process. Hence, it is imperative that the estimation is revised often. This should be done in the early stages so that there are no discrepancies once you freeze the estimation. It is always advisable not to extend the estimation for testing method unless major changes are required. Take care of the inadequacies beforehand If it is felt that a proposed duration or budget is inadequate, it is always better to suggest adjustments at the initial stages. These adjustments can be carried out by balancing the four criteria, like, quality, cost, features and schedule. The project rollout should be a planned one from the very beginning so that there is no need to scramble with the schedule at the later stages. You can also include some buffer time as that would help to deal with the delays, if any. However, this buffer time should be realistic. Learn from your pas To ensure that your ways are sure to spell success, the best way is to learn from your past. Your experiences with the previous projects will help immensely if you refer to them. Analyze your previous estimates and decide on the new ones accordingly. These are just some of the basic ways in which you can estimate the testing method and cost – both are two major factors in developing a project. With accurate methods for estimation working on the project becomes smoother. As a result, the product development will be successful. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of a offshore software testing company. We provide QA and testing services. If you would like to hire software testers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.
When it comes to evaluation or testing of mobile devices, there is no dearth of options that are available. However, in spite of the considerable growth in the number of solutions of mobile testing, a significant extent of evaluation is done manually. This is mainly because of scalability and financial issues. Yet, another option that is seeing high growth in terms of popularity is outsourcing. Then there is Crowdsourced mobile testing, which is an extremely low-cost version of outsourced mobile assessment. This particular type of evaluation comes up with flexibility. It also supports multilingual evaluation of a broader cross section of the devices. It is mainly used by the freelancers. This helps in cost cutting in a significant way. With the requirement of mobile testing increasing in leaps and bounds, there is an ardent need for various options as well as strategies. As if in response to the growing needs, newer strategies are being developed. Today, it is possible to run all the emulators as well as in-house evaluations. Still, it is needed to conduct the evaluations in the live fields. With so many requirements coming up in the realm of QA, new ideas, options, approaches as well as tools are coming into play. There is Gorilla Logic that has come out with the version 5 of FoneMonkey, which is famous for its open-source functional evaluation framework. Then there is another option – the uTest that is popular among the fraternity of crowdsourced evaluation. Another option is Selenium. This is actually a portable evaluation framework that is meant for the web applications. However, this can be modified to make it applicable for the mobile devices. Apart from all these, there is the option of simulator-based evaluation, though this particular type has drawn criticism from certain quarters, and hence is generally avoided. There is a cloud based testing solution that conducts the Selenium tests, which takes care of the management along with the provisioning issues through the commodity hardware. Other options that are available are: Apptimize: This one is designed to be used in iOS as well as Android. For the monthly active users, the framework will cost $50/month. The framework helps in updating as well as` changing without the need to resubmit at the App Store. Leanplum: This tool is available mainly for iOS, PhoneGap, Android, as well as Unity. It costs $79 per month for the evaluators who use this tool. It also helps in visual editing of the applications. Taplytics: At present, Taplytics is only available for iOS, and the cost of the tool is $20/month for the QAs who avail this tool’s help. Again, this tool also helps in visual editing of the applications. Artisan: Artisan is available for iOS as well as Android. The cost of the tools is $1,000 per month for the users who take the help of this tool in an active way. Artisan is one of the two A/B QA frameworks that you will find as a part of the larger analytics package. Artisan also enables visual editing of your app. Vessel: Vessel is available for Windows phone, Android, iOS, PhoneGap or HTML5. Vessel.io costs $150 per month and comes with a larger analytics pack, which enables visual application editing. Swrve: Swrve provides an enterprise QA solution. Arise: Arise is available for iOS as well as Androidand is available at 99 Euros for its active users. Splitforce: Splitforce is basically a tool designed for iOS and Unity. The cost of this tool is $299 for the users who take help of this tool. Optimimo: Optimimo is designed exclusively for Android and it available at $49 per month for the ones who use it actively. Amazon A/B Testing: This framework is designed and developed on AWS, and is available for iOS, Android as well as Android Kindle Fire. It is an open source framework and is hence, free, with no limits as regards to apps, the number of team members and active users. To get maximum benefits of mobile testing, you may consider hiring services of a mobile automation testing company. We provide mobile app testing service. If you would like to get your application tested by our expert mobile testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
Usually testers have to learn several programming languages to evaluate the efficiency of a particular mobile app over various platforms. However Appium enables the experts for testing mobile apps with Selenium WebDriver. Therefore, they've choice to write tests by using various programming languages that works with the WebDriver such as perl, Python, PHP, Java, Objective-C, C#, Ruby, & JavaScript with Node.js. Additionally, they may choose any kind of testing framework to improve the speed as well as the ability of the testing work. Several organizations depend upon open source testing automation tools such as Appium for automation both the native & hybrid mobile apps. Currently, Appium is supporting many platforms such as iOS, Android & FirefoxOS. Therefore, the developers could easily automatighte both the native & hybrid apps by focusing on various platforms. Additionally, Appium also is considered as very flexible in the mobile app automation.The user even have choice to get the advantages of Appium Inspector, a record & playback tool for automate the native apps. This particular tool is created in an approach much to Selenium IDE for the Web browsers. This generates test scripts based on the steps carried out in inspector. Appium may even check the DOM, and also generate test scripts in the programming language chosen from the user. But, the Appium Inspector isn't compatible in Microsoft Windows currently. Being an HTTP server, Appium works well in creating & handling WebDriver sessions. It could additionally create & handle several WebDriver sessions for many platforms such as iOS & Android. This tool could be used to begin a test case on a device which starts communication from the server, and also gets proxy commands by the primary Appium server. Then again, the manner and the mechanism in order to run test case in the device is different in each mobile platform. Hence it runs the test case simply by listening the commands by the server. Monkeyrunner alternatively is an API built on Python, enables to generate programs that can manage certain devices with the user point of view. Some other testing frameworks found currently are Robotium & Robolectric. Robotium runs tests within emulators for all those against Android API. On the other hand Robolectric is an unit test framework. This runs within IDE. One more testing framework is called Espresso which is used for the certain purpose. This is an API used in order to test against the Android UI. Yet another well known testing framework which has been preferred for many years known as Flurry. For those who would like to get a report and detailed crash reports, can choose Flurry. Although the above testing alternatives are great, while building a hybrid app, you may not be able to utilize those at all. When you are in for the cross platform automation framework that can help you building tests in whatever language you want both for Android and also for iOS, you may then opt for Appium. Stephen Janaway is a Test Manager by profession. He works on mobile & web testing, test automation & software delivery optimisation. He has mentioned in a blog that he has used Appium and found it to be good. Since it went to version 1.0 it seems to have become more stable. He further stated that the important fact in mobile automation currently stands where it had been since five to six years back with web automation. There are plenty of solutions, few works better than the other, few are better supported than the others, and few are high priced than the others. He stated that they opt Appium simply because it is cost-free as well as it is open source, it features a well-supported and active Google group, it doesn't need anything to be installed in the device and no server or even code changes not required, it works with the two Android & iOS. It is more challenging to carry out some gestures, and others compared to several of the other solutions available that we piloted Calabash that was good in this respect, he concluded. To get maximum benefits of testing, you may consider hiring services of a Appium testing company. We provide quality assurance testing services. If you would like to get your application tested by our expert automation testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
